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Flowers
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A small plastic container fell off the lab table, scattering the small white seeds it had held onto the floor, where they bounced and rolled with reckless abandon. They 'pinged' softly against the linoleum flooring as they did so.
"Oh, no, Jack," said Maddie, dropping to her knees in an effort to stop some of them from rolling away, "these are our only graveflower samples! Help me find them!" She pushed the ones in front of her into a small pile. "I think some of them rolled that way, towards the portal." She nodded her head at the closed doors.
"Right-o!" said Jack, carefully shuffling away from the table and the other labeled seed containers. He too, dropped to his knees and started crawling over the ground, looking for the seeds.
The Fentons had decided to take a look at more traditional ghost hunting- and even ghost attracting- methods, most of which had to do with plants or rituals of one kind or another. Jack had taken a look at some of his ancestors' writings, and, although the plant they were most interested in, blood blossoms, were sadly extinct, they had found a number of other interesting claims. The seeds that had just been scattered across the floor were said only to germinate and bloom at the grave or death site of a person or animal that had become a ghosts, and they were exceedingly rare.
Some of the records of them they had found suggested that the size and number of the flowers were correlated with the power of the power of the ghost, but Maddie was skeptical. Actually, she'd been skeptical of the plant's properties in general, until their passive scans of the graveflower seeds had detected tiny amounts of ectoplasm inside them.
They were hoping to get permission to plant them on the graves of people generally believed to have become ghosts. If they could get them to germinate and breed, it would be a good test, and a warning to surviving family members.
But they couldn't do that if all their seeds rolled under cabinets.
They consolidated the seeds they had found and counted them out. Maddie sighed. "We're missing one," she said.
"I'm sorry, Mads," said Jack.
"It's fine, dear. We still have more than enough, and I'm sure it'll turn up eventually." She frowned at the overflowing cabinets. "It's probably over there, somewhere." She shook her head. "We'll deal with it later."
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(The seed had not rolled under the cabinets.)
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Danny crept down the stairs to the lab in human form. He knew his parents had been looking into ghost-affecting plants, and he wanted to know which ones and if he should be worried. He also didn't want to risk being affected by something they already had down there. He didn't think seeds alone would do anything to him, but what if they had seedlings, cuttings, or things like that? It was best to take the precaution of staying human.
He was relieved to find that little, labeled boxes of seeds were all that he could see. He took a piece of paper from the table and started to copy down the names.
Some of them, he had encountered before. Once they had realized that the whole ghost thing wasn't going away, he, Sam, and Tucker had tested as many traditional ghost remedies as they could, including the plants sage, fennel, rowan, mullein, and rosemary. Few of them had done anything to Danny, in either form.
Danny didn't recognize all of them, however, and the ones he didn't know were the ones he was worried about. He didn't see anything labeled 'blood blossoms,' though, so he counted his blessings. He finished his list, and tucked it into his pocket before turning to the portal.
Frostbite and the other yetis were his best bet for knowledge on ghost health, and Danny didn't think he'd get another good chance to take the long trip to the Far Frozen once his parents got really invested in this project. If Frostbite didn't know, Danny would have to rely on Tucker's internet-fu and Sam's botanical knowledge.
He pressed his thumb against the DNA reader. A soft beep indicated that he'd been accepted, and the yellow-and-black striped portal doors whirred open. Behind them, the portal spiraled and swirled, subtly reaching out to Danny. Danny glanced back at the table full of seeds, and decided not to go ghost until he was safely in the Ghost Zone. He stepped through the portal.
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(He did not notice the seed stuck to the sole of his shoe, nor did notice when it fell off as he walked through the portal tunnel.)
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"Frostbite said that they're all harmless," Danny told his sister. "As long as I don't eat them, and it's not like Mom and Dad are going to feed us the equivalent of ghost weed. Or ghost truth serum."
"They might, actually," said Jazz, dubiously. "You know how they are, sometimes. Especially if they think we've been overshadowed. But you're sure they won't affect you, otherwise?"
"Well, Frostbite said that some of them will smell really good, but it shouldn't be a compulsion for me to go eat them or lie in them or whatever. Just a nice smell."
"If you're sure," said Jazz. "What about the ghost detecting ones?"
Danny kicked the ground to make his desk chair spin. They were having this discussion in his room. Jazz was on the bed. "Probably not going to be a problem."
"Probably?"
"It's not like they follow ghosts around like the sun. They just absorb ectoplasm in the soil. What I'd really be worried about is the one that grows on ghosts' graves, but it isn't like they're going to try and plant one in the portal, so I think I'm safe there."
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(The seed that had fallen inside the portal began to crack open.)
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Maddie frowned at the latest portal energy readings. Over the past week, they had been slowly, but surely, changing. It was as if there was a power drain, a slow leak, somewhere. She gazed at the portal's whirling surface. Even that looked off, the twisting pattern disrupted somehow.
"Jack," she said, "I think there's something the matter with the portal. Will you spot me while I check it out?"
"Sure thing, honey!" said Jack, putting down the grow-lamp they'd ordered for their plants and bounding over to the closet where they kept their ecto-exploration suits. He pulled hers free.
As she put on her suit, she wondered what could be causing the drain. A loose wire or tube? A ghost taking up residence in the tunnel? A bit of spectral debris? It could be anything. It might not even be something immediately visible on the surface.
Maddie shuddered at the idea of trying to fix something inside the walls while the portal was on. They couldn't just turn it off, unfortunately. They had tried that when ghosts first started coming through, but even the emergency power cutoff switch had failed to shut the portal down. The only effect was that they had lost a good deal of control over its power output, which made it much more dangerous to be around. So, they had restarted all of their containment and control procedures and had started to look into ways to close portals.
But it might not be an issue. There was no need to borrow trouble.
The helmet settled on the suit's neck piece with a click, and Maddie started going through her pressurization check. A small amount of ectoplasm wouldn't hurt, but she didn't want to be exposed to the amount that was free-floating in the Ghost Zone.
Besides, if there was a ghost camping out in their portal, the suit would protect her from its attacks.
Jack slid into the seat in front of the telemetry board. "Everything looks good, Mads!"
Maddie gave him two thumbs up and walked into the portal.
She was totally unprepared for what she saw.
There were vines curling up around the walls of the portal, meeting overhead. Roots dug into the metal plates and curled around delicate wires. Heavy, green-white buds hung between heart-shaped leaves. She realized with a jolt that she recognized them, if only from pictures.
"You okay in there, Maddie?" asked Jack over the suit intercom.
"I'm fine," said Maddie. "But I think I found where our missing graveflower seed went to."
"Huh? It's in there?"
"It grew," said Maddie. Even as she said it, she wondered how. They were only supposed to grow on a ghost's grave or death site. They had dug this tunnel themselves. No one was buried here. No one could have died here, either, this far under the earth.
At least, not recently. How far could a graveflower reach back? How far down? How far up? They had barely started their research...
"Are you sure?" asked Jack. "Can you get a sample?"
"Of course," said Maddie, removing a pair of clippers from her utility belt. She removed a branched that had curved out into the center of the portal, away from the wall.
But how were they going to get the rest out?
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I think I might continue this one, but I'm not sure. What do you guys think?